Day 8: War and Peace

I report with relief and pride that the War and Peace 2007 project continues right on pace. There were a few days of despair last week during a long stretch of War chapters (so far I prefer the Peace storyline; how womanly of me), but I trudged through. Some words of advice to those who may be attempting the same feat: do not, do NOT look for a list of characters online, no matter how confused you may be! Spoilers abound! Best to push on through; you’ll realize that the Karagins are different from the Kuragins (not a typo!) soon. Well, soon-ish.

I leave you with the passage in which Tolstoy, with typical perceptiveness and acuity, introduces Lieutenant Berg:

Berg talked very precisely, serenely, and politely. All he said was always concerning himself. He always maintained a serene silence when any subject was discussed that had no direct bearing on himself. And he could be silent in that way for several hours at a time, neither experiencing nor causing in others the slightest embarrassment. But as soon as the conversation concerned him personally, he began to talk at length and with visible satisfaction.

Sound like anyone you know?

 

T Minus 50 Days

So last week I (and by “I” I mean “Maurice”) purchased my ticket back to the US. One way, of course. I leave/arrive on August 28th.

I can do no better than the immortal words of Jessie Spano in describing how I feel about all this:

(Not really a surprise where that went, eh?)

I need a project to distract myself from this much-anticipated but still very frightening Major Life Change. Usually my project of choice is vaccuuming. But we don’t have a vaccuum, and even if we did, it makes no visible difference to our 1967 original garishly-patterned/violently colored carpet. So I have decided to read War and Peace instead. If I read just 30 pages a day (easy!), I can still return it to the library before heading off to the airport.

So here’s my report on Day 2 of the War and Peace project. There’s been a party and a drunken incident. Someone rich may or may not be about to kick it. Pyotr Nikolaitch = Pierre (I think?). No! Pyotr Kirillovitch = Pierre. Prince Vassily’s last name is Kuragin, and he is the father of the debauched Anatole ( I’m positive!) My favorite line so far, only because I have seen so many people behave exactly like this, is : “Boris, with an evident sense of having discharged an onerous duty, having extricated himself from an awkward position, and put somebody else into one became perfectly pleasant again.”

Updates forthcoming.